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Dialogue between Christians and Muslims is a “vital necessity”, says Pope "'As an example of brotherly respect with which Christians and Muslims can work together,' [the Pope] said, 'I'd like to quote a few words Pope Gregory VII addressed in 1076 to a Muslim prince in North Africa who had been benevolent towards Christians under his rule. Pope Gregory VII spoke of the special charity Christians and Muslims owed each other because 'we believe and confess one God, albeit in different ways. Every day we praise Him and venerate Him as Creator of the centuries and ruler of this world (PL 148, 451).'"
Asia Times, 11.28.06

Church-Islam dialogue: the path starts from Regensburg’s Pope "Benedict XVI’s speech at Regensburg received a lot of criticism but it in fact launched an effective model for Islamo-Christian dialogue: refusal of violence, love of truth, interpretation, mission. The only way to go beyond the trivially tolerant appearance of dialogue promoted by many Muslims and by a good part of the Catholic Church...Benedict XVI seems to suggest to Muslims: we must read the text in its context; and this is fundamental for beginning an Islamo-Christian dialogue. We must reread the sacred texts to see "the circumstances of revelation" In this, the Pope is resuming the healthy tradition of interpretation which was alive in the 9th century. Unfortunately, this no longer occurs in contemporary Islam."
Asia News

Reflections of a British Muslim Extremist “British activist Ed Husain was seduced, at the age of 16, by revolutionary Islamist ideals that flourished at the heart of educated British culture. Yet he later shrank back from radicalism after coming close to a murder and watching people he loved become suicide bombers. He dug deeper into Islamic spirituality, and now offers a fresh and daring perspective on the way forward.” Speaking of Faith

Issues

Church & State & Sharia Law

The leader of the Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, is advocating that the UK accommodate the sharia law of Islam. While counseling that sharia law must never be allowed to trump basic human rights, the Archbishop believes that in “some cultural and religious settings” Muslims should be allowed to resolve some disputes, such as divorce cases, apart from the greater British legal system.

In typical Anglican fashion, the Archbishop is trying to find a middle way between opposing principles. He imagines that Muslims will be willing—as any good Anglican would—to translate sharia’s repressive stance towards women “into a setting where that whole area of the rights and liberties of women has moved on.”

But many Muslims believe that sharia law—including its draconian provisions against women—is immutable because of its divine authorship. No doubt the Archbishop’s heart is in the right place. But I fear that he has become so accustomed to tailoring his truth to the times that he can’t see in another religion a far different spirit than that of his own.

The difference is reflected in the article I cited above. The Islamic spokesman cited, Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Ramadhan Foundation, accuses another Anglican prelate, the Bishop of Rochester, of lying when he said that non-Muslims face a hostile reception in areas of Islamic radicalism, which the bishop called “no-go areas.” The term used might have been offensive, but the truth of the comment is unassailable. So who is doing the lying? But Mohammed Shafiq will have none of it, threatening the gentle Archbishop, “Unless he [Dr. Williams] speaks out against this intolerance, Muslims will take his silence as authorisation and support for such comments.”

As the Archbishop points out, there may well be limited areas in which British law can accommodate Islamic practices, just as it does Orthodox Judaism and even—horrors—Catholic opposition to abortion. But Dr. Williams seems oblivious to the possibility that limited accommodation to sharia law now could open the door to more oppressive practices in the future. As Mike Judge of the Christian Institute said, “The idea that you can have the moderate bits without the nasty bits coming along at a later time is naive.”

I don’t want to engage in fear-mongering, but there’s good reason to worry that Anglicans are blind to the fact that many Moslems would like to see theocratic rule established in Western Europe. Ironically, such rule would destroy the very same civil rights that these Anglicans want to extend to Moslem citizens now.

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